Happy Sunday! Hope you remembered to set your clocks back. Let the darkness begin!

I thought today I’d get back to some good old fashioned estate planning.

As you probably know, we do probates here at the office (not our estate planning clients) and you’d be surprised how often people provide a Will for probate that isn’t valid.

And an invalid Will is no good – it’s as if it doesn’t exist.

We’ve seen family members accidentally cut out, family members meant to be cut out give a large inheritance, and everything in between.

All because the Will was invalid.

And the hardest thing is, most people don’t learn the Will isn’t valid until after the person has died.

That means there is no way to fix the mistake…

So, what makes a Will acceptable to the court?

Five things, really:

1. In writing;
2. Signed;
3. In the presence of 2 witnesses;
4. Of sound mind;
5. Not under duress.

You have those things and you have a valid Will.

All the rest is just details.

Have a great week!

Cheers,

Christopher Small
Owner
CMS Law Firm LLC

PS – we love referrals! If you know someone that could use our help, please let them know about us!